Carol Jerrems facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Carol Jerrems
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Jerrems photographed by Rennie Ellis at Brummels Gallery in 1975
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| Born | 14 March 1949 Ivanhoe, Victoria
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| Died | 21 February 1980 (aged 30) Prahran, Victoria
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| Nationality | Australian |
| Known for | Photography |
Carol Jerrems (born March 14, 1949 – died February 21, 1980) was an amazing Australian photographer and filmmaker. Her work became famous when photography was just starting to be seen as a true art form again. She was known for mixing different styles in her photos, like showing real life, staged scenes, and parts of her own story.
Carol was famous for capturing the spirit of different groups of people in the 1970s. This included Indigenous Australians, young people looking for change, and the growing women's rights movement in Melbourne. Her photos have been compared to those of famous international photographers like Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, and also Australian photographer William Yang.
Carol Jerrems passed away at only 30 years old. Even though her career was short, lasting only seven years, she created a lot of important work.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Carol Jerrems was born in Ivanhoe, Melbourne, on March 14, 1949. She was the third child of Eric and Joyce Jerrems. Her father was an accountant, and her mother was a seamstress who also loved painting watercolors.
Carol went to Ivanhoe Primary School and Heidelberg High School. After that, she studied photography at Prahran Technical School from 1967 to 1970. This was a new photography course, and she was taught by the famous filmmaker Paul Cox. She even acted in one of his films called Skin Deep.
During her studies, Carol won several important awards. These included the Walter Lindrum Scholarship, the Institute of Australian Photographers Award, and First Prize in the Kodak Students Photographic Competition. After graduating from Prahran, she also studied to become a teacher at Hawthorn State College.
Her Photography Journey
In 1971, the National Gallery of Victoria bought some of Carol's photographs for its collection. This was a big deal because it showed her talent early on.
Carol stayed friends with Paul Cox and other students from Prahran College. She even appeared in Paul Cox's film The Journey in 1972.
Teaching and Connecting with Youth
In 1973, Carol started teaching at Heidelberg Technical School. She became friends with many of her students, especially those living in the nearby 1956 Olympic Village housing area. Some of these students were part of youth groups known as "sharpies." Carol photographed and filmed them in places like Banyule Reserve near Viewbank.
Her photos of these young people were published in the Circus magazine from the Melbourne University. She also started getting more and more jobs and publications. This happened because she made connections in the world of cinema, theater, music, and with groups working for women's rights and Indigenous communities.
Carol also became friends with Henry Talbot, a well-known fashion photographer who was then teaching. He invited her to teach photography with him at the Preston Institute. In 1975, she also began teaching photography, filmmaking, and yoga at Coburg Technical School.
Exhibitions and Publications
These successes led to her first exhibition in 1974 at the National Gallery of Victoria. It showed her 1968 college project called The Alphabet Folio. Her work was also included in a book about Australian photography by the new Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) in Sydney.
Carol also published a book called A Book About Australian Women. She created this book because of the upcoming International Women's Year in 1975. She also showed 32 photos from this series at Brummels Gallery in 1974.
Sydney and Later Work
In 1975, Carol moved to Sydney to live with her boyfriend, filmmaker Esben Storm. She continued teaching at Hornsby and Meadowbank Technical Colleges.
In Sydney, Carol had solo exhibitions and led workshops at the ACP. She also showed her work in group exhibitions, including Four Australian Women in Melbourne in 1978. Another solo exhibition at the ACP in November 1978 featured photos from her series Thirty—eight Buick (1976) and Sharpies (1976).
Carol also made a 16mm film called Hanging About: A Short Film by Carol Jerrems in 1978. It starred actors like Kate Grenville and Richard Moir. The film was shown at the opening of the Sydney Film Festival in 1980.
Later Life and Legacy
In 1979, Carol started teaching at the School of Art in Hobart, Tasmania. However, she became very ill and was admitted to the hospital. Despite her painful condition, she worked on a photo-diary of her time in the Royal Hobart Hospital. She passed away on February 21, 1980, at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
Her Unique Photography Style
Carol Jerrems had a very special way of taking photos. She didn't just point and shoot; she interacted with the people and places she photographed. She often made her subjects look directly into the camera or pose in a playful way. This shows that she worked with them, creating a shared experience.
For example, in her famous Vale Street series, she spent a whole day with the young people she was photographing. This allowed them to relax and be themselves, leading to very powerful and honest images.
Carol always used a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic camera with a standard lens. She preferred black and white film, usually Kodak Tri-X, and developed and printed her own photos. She loved using natural light, especially in the morning or late afternoon, and never used a flash.
Her friend Robert Ashton, who was also a photographer, remembered that Carol always had her camera with her. He said she was very careful with her technique, even her contact sheets (small prints of all the photos on a roll) were like works of art. Carol believed that four things were most important in photography: the subject, how it's arranged (composition), the lighting, and capturing the perfect moment.
Recognition and Collections
Carol Jerrems' work is still widely recognized today. There have been many exhibitions and screenings of her films since her passing. A major traveling exhibition called Living in the 70s: Photographs by Carol Jerrems was shown in 1990. A documentary film about her life, Girl in a Mirror, was released in 2005.
Her photographs and negatives are kept safe at the National Gallery of Australia. Her work is also featured in books about women in art and design, showing her lasting impact.
Awards
- 1968 Walter Lindrum Scholarship
- 1970 Institute of Australian Photographers Award
- 1971 Kodak student photographic competition
- 1975 Creative Development Branch, Australia Film Commission, Experimental Film Grant
- 1975 Travel Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
- 1974, November; Alphabet Folio, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
- 1974, December; Images from A Book About Australian Women, Brummels Gallery of Photography.
- 1976; Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.
- 1978, November–December; Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.
Group Exhibitions
- 1973; Joint exhibition with Lorraine Jenyns (ceramic sculpture) at Chapman Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne.
- 1973; Womanvision, at Sydney Filmmaker's Co-op.
- 1975; Woman, for International Women's Year.
- 1976/7; Rennie Ellis and Carol Jerrems: Heroes and Anti-Heroes.
- 1977; Hogarth Gallery, Sydney.
- 1978, May–June; Four Australian Women, with Christine Godden, Christine Cornish and Jenny Aitken, Photographers' Gallery, Melbourne.
- 1978, August–September; With Roderick McNicol, Pentax Brummels Gallery of Photography.
Posthumous Exhibitions (After Her Death)
Solo
- 1990/91; Living in the 70s: Photographs by Carol Jerrems, a traveling exhibition by the National Gallery of Australia.
- 2012/13; Carol Jerrems, Photographic artist, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
- 2013; Carol Jerrems: photographic artist, Monash Gallery of Art, Victoria.
- 2016/17; Carol Jerrems (1949-1980) Photographic Artist, Josef Lebovich Gallery, Sydney.
Group
- 1980; Aspects of the Philip Morris Collection: Four Australian Photographers, Australian Embassy, Paris.
- 1988; Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 1839–1988, National Gallery of Australia.
- 1991; Counterpoints: Photographs by Carol Jerrems and Wesley Stacey, National Gallery of Australia.
- 1994/5; All in the Family: Selected Australian Portraits, National Portrait Gallery.
- 1995; Colonial Pastime to Contemporary Profession: 150 years of Australian Women's Art, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
- 1995; Women Hold Up Half The Sky, National Gallery of Australia.
- 2010; Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s – 1970s, Art Gallery of South Australia.
- 2010; Up close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.
- 2011/12; What's in a face? aspects of portrait photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Films
- 1975; School's Out, 16mm film sequence (not completed).
- 1978; Hanging About: A Short Film by Carol Jerrems, 16mm.
Collections
- Art Gallery of South Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria
- National Library of Australia
- National Gallery of Australia
Images for kids
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Jerrems photographed by Rennie Ellis at Brummels Gallery in 1975
